Table full evidence, Governor hopeful react to viral post about Assembly's Office Complex graft claims

Speaker Jimmy Kahindi.

 

After a blog post doing round alleging there was a scandal at the county assembly amounting to Sh 700 Million, Kilifi Governor hopeful Speaker Jimmy Kahindi set the records straight.

 

The blog post from the tabloid talked about the Kilifi County Assembly building stating that the design raised eyebrows, prompting the Controller of Budget to interrogate its cost.

 

" The corruption ghosts revolving around the building of the Kilifi County Assembly building have refused to let go off, " the tabloid post stated.

 

Kahindi reacted with facts to the post stating, " It is laughable that a losing competitor can go down to instruct petty bloggers to write defamatory statements using pseudo accounts on matters that are not factual. 

 

 "The building in question began in 2016 with intention of housing the entire county assembly staff and MCAs. The first tender was given to green county company Ltd at Sh 672 Million which was a 5 story building. 

 

" The said Contractor breached the terms of the contract and the contract was terminated after a long delay. The contract was then awarded to another company Eden homes Ltd. "

 

In his statement, Kahindi added that during this time as the construction was going on the national government through the ministry of public works, CRA issued a circular that capped all assembly office blocks to Sh 250 Million irrespective of any existing contracts. The circular affected all the 47 assemblies since contractual sums had to be reduced substantially.

 

The move prompted the assembly to end the second contract on the second floor to comply with the set limit of 250 Million.

The speaker and clerk of the assembly sought assistance from the ministry of public works to have the previous contractual amount reinstated, as the building would not be able to accommodate everyone as planned.

 

Following this intervention, the ministry of public works went to the assembly and reviewed the work that had been done, as well as conducting an audit. 

 The statement also explained, "Following the inspection, the ministry suggested to the senate and the controller of the budget that the original contract sum be reinstated and the building be finished to the fifth level. The ministry of public works prepared a new bill of quantities for the building's second phase, and as of today, all necessary permits have been obtained, as well as the authority to advertise the assembly property for the second phase.

 

" Before labelling this a scandal, we encourage anyone who believes money has been misappropriated to contact the appropriate authorities.

The Kenya National Audit has audited the assembly and construction works and found that, despite the delays caused by the government circular, which is common knowledge, all processes were above board.

" The Kilifi County Assembly received a QUALIFIED AUDIT REPORT, which is equivalent to receiving an A on an exam for those with accounting knowledge, " the statement read.

 

The statement requested those who have more information about corruption cases ongoing in the assembly to report the matter to the relevant authorities.

" We demand that the author of the piece come forward and confirm all allegations levelled to report the matter to relevant authorities.  

" We're also sending a strong message that technology has progressed, and if you're paid to trash someone's character, be aware that the law will catch up with you, and your master will be unavailable to hear your plea.

" Furthermore, if the writer alleges new corruption allegations against Jimmy Kahindi, we welcome him or her to name any single file on corruption that has ever been filed against our candidate before ANY investigating body within the Republic of Kenya, be it the EACC or the DCI, with Jimmy Kahindi's name on it, " the statement reads.

However, according to the county assembly documents seen by our sources, the figures from the alleged county assembly building elaborated the statement. 

The first contract was awarded to Green county on 12th Feb 2016 for KSh 400,505,095.20.

Green county firm didn't deliver, leading to contract termination on 15th Aug 2017.

Later, the second contract was awarded to Eden Homes LTD on 12th, March 2018 for Ksh 408,654,299.60.

A circular from the Ministry of Public works dated 27th, Aug 2018 set expenditure limits of construction of chambers and offices at Ksh500,000,000. 

 

However, the Assembly had already utilised KSh 150,000,000 for rehabilitation of the chambers and existing offices, leaving a balance of Ksh 350,000,000.

This necessitated the Assembly to scale down works to fit in the expenditure limits as stated by the new circular.

The County assembly stated, " We wrote numerous correspondences to the Controler of the budget having declined to release funds for Development.

 

" The ministry later approved the additional funds after sending an officer on the ground who came and verify the work. The final phase paperwork has been completed and is ready to start.

" The good thing is that nothing in the blog has an iota of truth next week we are advertising the second phase of the building with all approvals from the ministry of public works controller of budget and CRA. "